Please honor this day and night appropriately. And remember every other day of the year. NO MORE DEATHS FROM HOMELESSNESS! Struggle with the People on the Streets for survival, rights, and dignity!

In Humboldt County, California, join folks Dec 21, 2018 on the Old Town Gazebo, Eureka, from 12pm Noon to 10pm. Come together with food, music, education, resources, community, and to remember our friends, loved ones, and neighbors we have lost. We are accepting donations of food and warm clothing to ensure our community members can make it through the night. Please bring donations to the event. More details soon.

Longest Night of the Year

Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day

HOMELESS PEOPLE DIE FROM SYSTEMIC VIOLENCE

Homeless people die from illnesses that affect everyone, frequently without health care.
Homeless people die from exposure, unprotected from the heat and cold.
Homeless people die when government policies deprive them of everything.
Homeless people die at the hands of police and civilians in unprovoked hate crimes.

Health care is a human right.
Housing is a human right.
Physical safety is a human right.
Sleep is a human right.

Remember our neighbors and friends who have died without homes.
Remember why they died.

December 21 Winter Solstice. The Extreme of Winter. The Longest Night of the Year.

Make sure – if you vote in Eureka, CA – that you do NOT vote for this jerk (pictured and discussed below), Anthony Mantova.

Also, add to that list of who NOT to vote for- Jeannie Breslin and Michelle Constantine. Please don’t vote for any of these ‘Take Back Eureka’ people. They do not like facts, public health, poor people, or social justice. People will suffer (even more) if this dishonest, hateful bunch get in to office. Mantova was a regular on Rush Limbaugh. He is now renting a place in Ward 1 from Michelle Constantine, so he can run in this election. Trump guy.

Here is a poem called “PROFILES OF THE PERPETRATORS”

(9 minutes, read by Verbena on the radio in Dec 2017): https://app.box.com/s/8dnfbptkdvz1lid7nz2gupqqg54r4fwo It includes details about bad actors Jeannie Breslin and other Take Back Eureka members. Take Back Eureka was founded by Michelle Constantine (running for Eureka mayor- NO!!) and Cornelius Loewenstein. [Click HERE if you’d like to listen to the whole Dec 2017 radio show on Violence Against Homeless People]

Sunday, August 27, 2006: Yellow Elephant Anthony Mantova, National Field Director of the Leadership Institute, says that it’s “hillbilly, intellectually vacant and morally repugnant that those who call for war must serve.”

His hometown paper, the Eureka [CA] Reporter, published his columns supporting theGlobal War on Terrorism, and invadingIran, as recently as last year.

WAR MONGER, TRUMP SUPPORTER, RIGHT WING LIAR, MANTOVA

His hometown paper, the Eureka [CA] Reporter, published his columns supporting the Global War on Terrorism, and invading Iran, as recently as last year.

To its credit, the Eureka Reporter just published real American (and former U.S. Army paratrooper) Rob Ash‘s column Asking The Question: Is Mantova willing to serve in the wars he supports? Money quotes:

Why doesn’t he sign up?

Mantova gave me unconvincing answers. He speculated how his enlistment might undermine civilian control of the military.He compared himself favorably to the ancient Roman politician Cato the Elder, Winston Churchill and Socrates. Clearly, Mantova has a very high opinion of his intellectual abilities.Finally, Mantova demeaned all service members and veterans with his “hillbilly, intellectually vacant and morally-repugnant” comments and dismissed the very notion of military service. He treated a deadly serious question as if it were a joke.

You can bet Mantova will continue to “stay the course” — the one farthest away from the recruitment office.He’s much safer cheering on the war from his cushy job at the nonprofit foundation and polishing his resume than he would be fighting those nasty terrorists.

Warning Eureka, Trump wannabe is running for City Council

Eureka you should be very worried

Far right-winger Anthony Mantova a regular commentator on the local Rush Limbaugh radio channel, owner of Mantova’s Two Street Music in Old Town, and complete Trump apologist has announced that he is running for the Ward 1 Eureka City Council position currently held by Marion Brady who is thankfully termed out

No surprise his supporters are the usual rightwing suspects John Fullerton, Jeff and Sharon Lamoree, Jeannie Breslin, and Marian Brady.

Surprise! Eureka City Council Candidate and all-around Trump sycophant Anthony Mantova has strongly endorsed Ryan Sundberg for fifth district supervisor in today’s Times-Standard.

No one actually should be surprised. While Ryan has cultivated his façade of being a calm, reasonable sort of middle of the road voice on the board of Supervisors, the reality is much different. True compared to the bluster and bravado of fellow supervisor Rex Bohn, Sundberg does indeed seem calm, but that just his demeanor, when you look at his voting record both as a supervisor and as a coastal commissioner it’s indistinguishable from the positions espoused by chronic blowhard Rex Bohn.

Birds of a feather

So what is Mantova’s big closing argument to get you to vote for Ryan? “During the several years that I operated a store in McKinleyville, none of my customers ever complained about Mr. Sundberg.”Seriously? That’s it?

We will gather from 2pm to 10pm with food, music, candles, and opportunity to share your thoughts and memories about the friends and neighbors we have lost. There will also be naloxone training and education. This will all be happening at the Gazebo (2nd and F) in Old Town Eureka on Thursday, December 21st – Winter Solstice and Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day.

In Southern Humboldt, you’re invited to gather “under the clock” in Garberville at 4pm, and there will be a candle light vigil in honor of those who have died while homeless, with no where to go.

FOOD AND DONATIONS FOR EUREKA GATHERING [certainly Garberville folks would like donations, too!]:

We are accepting donations of food and warm clothing to ensure our community members can make it through the night.

If you can, bring some vegetarian/vegan food (so everyone can enjoy). Regarding food, message or call Sarah Torres and let her know when you can bring your dish/food item. 707.267.4757.

Please show your support if you’re housed. Spread the word.

This year there has been a lot of violence against homeless people and unnecessary deaths of people without shelter. We honor those who have died by defending the dignity and safety of people living without shelter. And working so that no one is left out in a wet, cold. and dangerous situation.

Hope to see you Dec 21st. It is important that we come together and stay connected.

This year’s Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day is organized by people from Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives (AHHA), Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction (HACHR), folks from Peoples’ Action for Rights and Community (PARC), and other caring people in the community.

This has been difficult to write. We’ve been telling people vaguely, but here goes:

PARC IS CLOSING SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

There are many reasons, but before we get into what they are, we want to emphasize the need for more places like PARC to be created. And maintained.

PARC (Peoples’ Action for Rights & Community) has existed for 10 years- all of our work has been volunteer and all of our funding and supplies have been from community donations (including our own pockets). We have no 501(C)(3), no statistics, no lists of all the people who have come through the door, and no purse strings (or other strings) that keep us quiet or prevent us from risking arrest, organizing with whomever we want, and doing and supporting whatever actions we find worthy in defense of the people, the Earth, and the critters. Not one donation we get stops us from choosing to publicly take positions on government, police, prisons, community, homelessness, laws, businesses, racism, Palestine, etc; nor have we ever signed an agreement with anyone that precludes us from opposing the concepts, systems, structures, and people who we find to be harmful or threatening to dignity, fairness, and life.

We are proud of our stances against such things as capitalism, racism, police, borders, war, GMO’s, death penalty, and animal abuse. We don’t change to attract a donor or government, and therein lies our integrity. That, plus our commitment to care for people every day, morning to night, has kept us supported for this long.

We are so grateful to the principled and generous people and organizations who have supported PARC with money and all other types of donations, invitations to events, letters in our defense (remember those?), volunteer time, hours of dishwashing, long distance solidarity, artwork, animal care, vehicles and rides, home-made and special event foods, college/university internships, and spiritual and political backing.

Why are we closing?

PARC has been in its current location for 8 ½ of our 10 years. In Oct 2016, new owners bought the property from our very supportive landlord. Our new lease guaranteed our tenancy for a year, but the new landlords have been trying to get us out since shortly after they became the owners. (Unfortunately for them, we do a little tenants’ rights work, so we know how to defend ourselves.)
Now that it is almost a year, we will close PARC on Sept 7th and take a few weeks to clear out the space.

For those of you asking “What’s going to happened next?” that’s what we are trying to figure out. Over the 10 years that PARC has existed, the inequalities of capitalism have gotten worse, and more and more people are suffering. More people have been pushed into poverty and have greater difficulty meeting their daily survival needs. The impact on PARC has meant more time, effort, and resources devoted to helping people to just get by, and less time doing the political work to end the conditions that are putting people on the streets. 10 years of working here ‘as’ PARC has provided a wealth of experience; we have learned a lot; and in this period of having to shut down in this location, we have the opportunity to evaluate our responsibilities moving forward, committed to working for justice and social change.

To the people who rely on PARC for survival, for respite, for shelter from the storm, we send you these words of encouragement:

Keep your heads up. Welcome new cycles in your lives. Even with so much against you, you persist and survive and help people who are more vulnerable than you. Work on your health and the health of the people around you. Take care of the land and the water. ORGANIZE so things will be better. You are the experts on how you’re being treated by the police, businesses, housed community people, organizations, city government, etc. Use what you know and learn about other movements from the streets. Understand that people who bring you food or give you a blanket want to help stop the oppression you are experiencing. Talk with them about that. ORGANIZE so things will be better. Love, PARC

Volunteers who become familiar with the people and the rhythm in the chaos and come on a regular basis are critical. Countless volunteers have helped PARC over the years. We will not try and list all the names, for fear of leaving someone out, but everyone’s contributions were part of PARC’s spirit and success.

PARC has been an important resource center and organizing hub for 10 years.

PLEASE: Call PARC (707.442.7465) or email peoplesarc@gmail.com, if you would like to get together and talk about what you could do in the near future to prevent huge gaps in relief, food, bathrooms, showers, safe(r) space, computer use, phone use, mail service, legal support, etc. Without community action, these gaps will exist for people living on the street and for housed and unhoused people who need space, use of office equipment, and/or advocacy, for myriad reasons.

We want to talk with people about how to work a place like PARC, or a space that fills one or more of the needs that PARC has met, and how to establish this space and keep it going. There can and should be multiple places and methods that take care of community needs. Simple and consistent acts of creativity and dedication can do so much.

PARC needs to strategize with donors where to bring the clothes, food, and towel donations that we usually get. It is unacceptable for all donations to go to well-funded places (e.g. Eureka Rescue Mission, Betty Chinn) where only “certain” people can access them, and most can not.

Please consider the following needs that will no longer be met by PARC:

Please check out the below presentation we gave in April 2017 about the origins and work of Peoples’ Action for Rights and Community. Also, here is an anti-war Radical Rap radio show that Verbena hosted on KMUD April 17, 2017: https://www.mediafire.com/?4ljyg6dw8y4ecob

WE THANK AND ACKNOWLEDGE ALL OF YOU who donate to PARC– we know you support us from your Social Security checks, your as you struggle with health problems, while you raise a family, while you support your loved ones, as you work your asses off, even though you are thousands of miles away, while you struggle with injustice, as you create your art, as you teach, while you build or work to repair your communities, as you provide daily healthcare, as you rescue animals, and while there are so many worthwhile projects and movements and people to support. THANK YOU!

PARC Presentation to Veterans For Peace, Humboldt Bay, Chapter 56

PARC is an organizing and resource space that has been in Eureka CA, where it started, since Nov. 2007. Many of us who established the space had been organizing as PEOPLE PROJECT and Acción Zapatísta for several years. Earlier in 2007, we created a beautiful encampment in Arcata, the purpose of which was to expose and bring attention to: the fact that there is no free and legal place for people to sleep; the criminalization of people who are poor, homeless, and have no place for dignified rest; and the human rights violations that accompany an intentional politics of cruelty. Some of you might remember that 12 day and night encampment because Jim Sorter and other Vets For Peace would share dinner with us during sunsets.

So, PARC was created with that kind of organizing in mind- the need for space to meet and simply be, to work and build solidarity and power among the people, and a space that was welcoming, and often run by people of color and LGBTQI folks. In the summer of 2007, Martin Cotton II, a white homeless man with visible mental health issues, unarmed, was beat to death by Eureka Police in front of the Eureka Rescue Mission, and thrown in the jail- where he died. Those of us doing copwatch work realized that we needed a place where the many witnesses could safely come and talk about what they saw and experienced.

Those are the origins of PARC which we say is “focused on justice and care.”

We have run a modest, grassroots space for almost 10 years now- all donation-based, all volunteer. We’re still dealing with the same realities that led to the PEOPLE PROJECT encampment, and have created other safe sleeping spaces in Eureka, weekly “EndtheWaronthePoor” protests, a campaign to raise Eureka’s minimum wage, and myriad projects against state violence. Many groups have used the space. Many military veterans plug in with PARC, as volunteers or to access resources. PARC is very active in the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS), working to end solitary confinement in CA prisons and jails and support the prisoner class led human rights movement. Currently, we are trying to end a torture campaign of sleep deprivation in CA’s solitary confinement units. We have 4 phone lines-for the statewide PHSS, PARC, Jail Support, and Redwood Curtain CopWatch. We do court support and strategizing- for tenants’ rights, for people getting put through the in-justice system, assisting people who’ve had their rights violated, child custody and family court support, help with restraining orders, homeless court intake, filing paperwork, documenting situations, and the list goes on. We also do a lot of dishes, laundry and vacuuming.

PARC is open 7 days a week, 9-12 hours a day, facilitating many essential community functions and what the Black Panthers would call “Survival Programs.” Unlike other facilities, we have a no paperwork, no hoops policy. No applications, no breathalyzers, no proof of id. A person does not have to meet any special requirements in order to receive experienced advocacy or have their basic needs met. No one is charged (or gets paid) for assistance, space, food, literature or other resources.

PARC is the ONLY place that provides jail support to assist people who’ve been arrested. Many of these arrests result from direct actions (environmental, anti-war, homeless rights, immigration rights, anti-police brutality). Also, jail support is provided for people arrested unexpectedly onthe streets or in their cars. We help people successfully navigate through the complicated court proceedings resulting from arrest and organize more support.

PARC takes a stand against sexism, racism, heterosexism, homophobia, bullying, and state intrusion. PARC not only provide services and resources, but we ACTIVELY organize and speak against oppressive state forces of violence, intimidation, control, and harassment and discrimination from anyone in general. The daily PARC crowd is multi-racial, multi-generational, multi-gendered, and from a wide spectrum of life experiences. We assist people on an individual basis, understanding the ‘big picture’ injustices that have created such needs, traumas, and crises of humanity and planet.

Hey folks. Just a short message to humbly ask for some money. Peoples’ Action for Rights and Community, now open each and every day (almost) for 8 1/2 years, borrowed $200 for June 2016 rent. We need to pay it back. And we’re coming on July, too. Bills, rent, toilet paper, you know.

If you’re new to PARC, please read some of our previous, more detailed “panhandling” posts/emails. Please help and pass this on to more people who might be able to support a fully grassroots, volunteer and donation-based resource and organizing center.

We appreciate you. Simply, we are in solidarity with all oppressed peoples’ and want our work to help create a healthier, more caring world.